HANDS-ON practice in the field in which a person studied is important for 7 percent of companies looking for new employees. Moreover, these firms would prefer not to hire fresh graduates, according to the survey carried out the company AKO, titled The Most Required Working Position in 2013.
The main reason for these preferences is that few students leave secondary professional schools with the necessary skills, Václav Hřích from AKO told the press on January 27, as reported by the SITA newswire.
The goal of the survey, carried out among 1,000 companies in Slovakia between November 29 and December 18, 2013, was to find out which occupations the labour market currently lacks.
“A lack of professionals was [found] in occupations like metal worker, cook, bricklayer and electrician,” Hřích said, as quoted by SITA, adding that the engineering professions lack the most experts.
The survey also focused on recruiting trends, Hřích said. The results will be sent to the State Institute of Professional Education, which monitors this issue from several perspectives. The institute should then propose what should be done to change the situation, as reported by SITA.
Recruiters addressed in the survey said one of the reasons for the lack of skilled graduates has to do with secondary professional education not being geared toward the labour market’s needs.
“They establish specialisations based on the interest of applicants and teachers, not based on the needs of employers on labour market,” Hřích said, as quoted by SITA.
The requirements for studying in grammar schools have dropped, he added. Moreover, some secondary school graduates continue to study at universities and are not motivated to work in the field in which they studied, Hřích said.
According to the findings, about 50 percent of the recruiters surveyed said that their work has become more difficult, due to, among other things, the lack of people in some professions and the low number of graduates in the fields that are currently needed the most, as reported by SITA.
The ideal job applicant, the survey showed, is a young person who is not looking for his or her first job, and who already has some work experience. Yet, there are still some firms which take exam results into consideration and do not mind a lack of field experience. Employers also said they cared less about specific schools than the specialisation of the applicants, SITA wrote.
According to the survey, only 4.6 percent of companies want to establish their own professional school. Though companies consider such schools advantageous, only big companies are actually able to found them, due to high costs and concern over whether they will see any return on their investment, Hřích said, as reported by SITA. He added that firms also fear that their employees will leave to join rival companies.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
